Each day, I'll try to post a new puzzle or puzzles (or riddles or problems) for you to try. I'll talk with you about a method of collecting and trading in points in class. A week's worth of puzzles will live here until Friday. Fridays will be final answer check points for that week...Unless it's a test day. Then we'll work something out ahead of time.
(I'm NOT posting the whole week's puzzles at once simply because...AHEM....I know some of you will try them ALL on Monday if I do.)
Each week the puzzles will vanish and a new batch will appear. (Actually, a new one will appear each day once the old ones are gone.)
MY RULES:
1. Try a riddle/problem/puzzle ON YOUR OWN. 2. If you think you have a correct answer, WRITE IT DOWN to show me. DON'T SAY IT OUT LOUD. If you say it out loud, that puzzle will be out of play (for you and everyone else to try and collect points). PLEASE DON'T BE A BLURTER. 3. Please be honorable. You can probably find solutions to these puppies online, but, really, where is the fun in that? Abuse of the system may result in removable of puzzles and this page. 3. You have to collect your points on Fridays. Points not collected on Fri won't be signed for the following week.
The Week of Sept 2
First Installment:
Riddle #1: If I have it, I don't share it. If I share it, I don't have it. What am I?
Riddle #2: How do you make the number one disappear?
Second Installment:
Riddle #3: Throw me off a tall building, and I do not break. Put me in the ocean, and I will. What am I?
Riddle #4: What can you catch but you cannot throw?
The Weeks of Sept 20 and Sept 23
First Installment
Riddle #1: As I went across a bridge, I met a man with a load of wood which was neither straight nor crooked. What kind of wood was it?
Riddle #2: What connects two people but touches only one?
Riddle #3: There are four brothers in the world that were all born together. The first runs and never wearies. The second eats and is never full. The third drinks and is always thirsty. The fourth sings a song that is never good. What/who are they?
Second Installment
Riddle #4: The more you take, the more you leave behind. What are they?
Riddle #5: Who are two brothers who live on the opposite side of the road yet never see each other?
Riddle #6: What goes into the water black and comes out red?
Third Installment
Riddle #7: If there are 4 apples and you take away 3, how many apples do you have?
Riddle #8: What has a thumb and four fingers but is not alive?
Riddle #9: A magician is standing on a concrete floor holding a raw egg with his hand outstretched. Without the aid of any objects, he is able to drop the egg two feet without breaking its shell. How does he do it?
Fourth Installment
Riddle #10: A baseball team had won a game 19-17. No errors. Not a single man crossed the plate. How could that be?
Riddle #11: A boy was locked in a room by some robbers. All that is in the room is a piano, a calendar, and a bed. The room is locked from the outside. What does he eat, drink, and how does he get out?
Fifth Installment
Riddle #12: What is it the more you take away the larger it becomes?
Riddle #13: What word has 5 letters but is pronounced only as one?
Week of Sept 30
First Installment
Riddle #1: I am taken from a mine, and shut up in a wooden case, from which I am never released, and yet I am used by almost everybody. What am I?
Riddle #2: Poke your fingers in my eyes and I will open wide my jaws. Linen, cloth or paper, my greedy lust devours them all. What am I?
Riddle #3: It's been around for millions of years, but it's no more than a month old. What is it?
Riddle #4: What goes in the water red and comes out black?
Second Installment
Riddle #5: What do these three have in common: dogs, diamonds, and double plays?
Riddle #6: A king tells his two sons to race their horses to a distant city to see who will inherit the kingdom. The one whose horse is slower will win. Reluctantly, the brothers start out on this "race". After wandering for days, they came across a wise man and asked him for advice. After hearing the advice of the wise man, the brothers jumped on the horses and raced as fast as they can to the city. What advice did the wise man offer?
Riddle #7: The case of the poisoned pill
There are eight pills. They are all the same size and color. One pill weighs slightly more than the others and is poison. You have a balanced scale and can only use it twice. How can you find the poisoned pill?
Third Installment
Riddle #8: What is as round as a dishpan, deep as a tub, and still the ocean couldn't fill it up?
Riddle #9: What is put on a table, cut, but never eaten?
Riddle #10: A woman walks into a diner and asks the man behind the counter for a glass of water. The man pulls out a big hairy spider and tosses it toward the lady. A few minutes later, the woman thanks the man and walks out of the diner. Why?
Riddle #11: How many common four letter words can you make from the letters E A M N using all the letters in each word? What are they?
Riddle #12: What two words, when combined, hold the most letters?
Fourth Installment
Riddle #13: It has my name, but is not me! Who is speaking and what is IT?
Riddle #14: What starts with an "e" and ends with an "e" and usually contains only one letter?
Riddle #15: While driving home after a hard day's work, I came upon the following problem. An entire town had been painted black: the roads, pavements, buildings, hedges, and everything else that did not move had been painted black. In addition, my vehicle's headlights were not working, no moon was visible, and power was off in the area, so there were no street or house lights around. At that moment, I entered a curve where a solid black dog (deaf, and thus unaware of the approaching car) was sitting in the road. He had his back to me, so there was not even a glint in his eye, yet I was able to swerve around him quite easily and without danger. How was this achieved?
Riddle #16: When do you go on red and stop on green?
Week of October 14
Installment 1
Riddle #1:Good at math? Try this one....
2=3
3=5
4=4
5=4
6=3
7=5
What does 11=? What does 12=?
Riddle #2: During a school lunch break, ten kids are discussing after school jobs. In particular, they would like to know their average monthly salary (for the ten of them), but no one wants to admit opening exactly what they make. Can you devise a way for them to calculate their average salary without anyone having to tell anyone else their salary?
Riddle #3: In a random drawing of three digits, the number 361 was drawn; immediately afterward in a random drawing of four digits 2401 was drawn. Both of these numbers have something unusual in common--what is it? And what are the chances of this happening again, remembering that in a random drawing numbers can begin with one or more zeroes?
Puzzle #1:
Diophantus' youth lasted 1/6 of his life. He had his first beard in the next 1/12 of his life. At the end of the following 1/7 of his life Diophantus got married. Five years from then his son was born. His son lived exactly 1/2 of Diophantus' life. Diophantus died 4 years after the death of his son. How long did Diophantus life?
Puzzle #2: How do you write 23 using only the number 2?
Bonuses: Write 34 using only the number 3.
Write 56 using only the number 5.
Write 100 using only the number 9.
Puzzle #3:
10 candles stand burning in a dining room. A strong breeze blows through an open window and extinguishes 3 of them. Assuming the wind doesn't extinguish any more candles, how many candles do you have in the end?
Puzzle #4:
A swimming pool has four faucets. The first can fill the entire pool with water in two days, the second, in three days, the third in four days, and the last one can fill the pool in 6 hours. How long will it take to fill the pool using all 4 faucets together?
Puzzle #5:
A group of 100 soldiers suffered the following injuries in a battle: 70 soldiers lost an eye, 75 lost an ear, 85 lost a leg, and 80 lost an arm. What is the minimum number of soldiers who must have lost all 4?
Puzzle #6:
A distant planet "X" has only one airport located at the planet's North Pole. There are only 3 airplanes and lots of fuel at the airport. Each airplane has just enough fuel capacity to get to the South Pole. The airplanes can transfer their fuel to one another.
Your mission is to fly around the globe above the South Pole with at least one airplane, and, in the end, all the airplanes must return to the airport. How do you do it?
Puzzle #7:
I have two US coins totaling 55 cents. One is not a nickel.
What are the coins?
Puzzle #8:
Can you arrange 9 numerals - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 - (using each numeral just once) above and below a division line, to create a fraction equaling to 1/3 (one third)?
Puzzle #9:
There is a man in room, and he is hanging by a rope. There is a small puddle of water. How did he die?
Riddle #10:
Johnny's mom had 5 kids: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Who was the 5th child?
Mindbender #1:
While on safari in the wild jungles, Professor Quantum woke one morning and felt something in the pocket of his shorts. It had a head and a tail, but no legs. When Quantum got up he could feel it move inside his pocket. Quantum, however, showed little concern and went about his morning rituals. Why such a casual attitude?
Mindbender #2:
If two hours ago, it was as long after one o'clock in the afternoon as it was before one o'clock in the morning, what time would it be now?
Mindbender #3:
In our calendar some months have 30 days and some months have 31 days. How many months have 28 days?
Mindbender #4:
These are the conditions of Baldyville:
1. No two inhabitants have the same number of hairs on their head.
2. No inhabitant has exactly 518 hairs.
3. There are more inhabitants in town than hairs on any individual inhabitant's head.
What is the highest possible number of inhabitants?
Mindbender #5:
The day before yesterday I was 25 and the next year I will be 28. This is true only one day in the year. What day is my birthday?
Mindbender #6:
What five digit number has the following property...If we put numeral 1 in front of the number, we get a number 3 times smaller, than if we put the numeral 1 behind this number.
Mindbender #7:
Name an English word of more than 2 letters that both begins and ends with the letters "he" (in that order)...and hehe is not an acceptable solution.
Mindbender #8:
It cannot be seen, cannot be felt,
cannot be heard, cannot be smelt.
It lies behind stars and under hills
and empty holes it fills.
What is it?
Mindbender #9:
I live above a star, and yet I never burn,
I have eleven neighbors, and yet none of them turn,
I am visited in sequence, first, last or in between,
PRS (& sometimes Q) are my initials, now tell me what I am.
Mindbender #10:
If 3 peacocks lay 5 eggs in 8 days, how many peacocks will lay 29 eggs in 76 days?
Riddle #11:
How many seconds are in a year?
WEEK OF NOV 18 puzzle A:
You walk across a bridge and you see a boat full of people yet there isn't a single person on board. How is that possible?
puzzle B:
How can you take 9 toothpicks and make ten without breaking the toothpicks?
puzzle C:
There is a man on an island prison, he cannot swim. One day he escapes using nothing but himself. There is not bridge. How does he do it?
Feb. 2014
1. find the values of a, b, c, d such that abcd x 4 = dcba (6 pts)
2. Why are some letters above and some below?
above= A E F H I K L M N T V W X Y Z
below= B C D G J O P Q R S U
3. If you have 5 people in a room and each person shakes hands with every other person exactly once, how many total handshakes happen?
(bonus pt if you calculate the same problem for 8 people)
4. Rule: Every minute, each amoeba splits into two amoebas. At 5pm, you put one amoeba in a box.
At 6 pm, the box is full of amoebas. When was the box half full?
5. There are three light switches up in the attic of an old house. They control three light bulbs down in the basement. The problem is that you don't know which bulb. You can make one trip down to the basement to figure this out. How are you going to do it?
6. Two disks add to twenty. They are marked 11 and 9. Can you put numbers on the reverse side so that they add to 19, 20, 21, 22? (3 pts)
7. A customer had $100 in his account. He made 6 withdrawals, totallying $100.
withdrawal balance left
$50 $50
$25 $25
$10 $15
$8 $7
$5 $2
$2 $0
I'll talk with you about a method of collecting and trading in points in class.
A week's worth of puzzles will live here until Friday. Fridays will be final answer check points for that week...Unless it's a test day. Then we'll work something out ahead of time.
(I'm NOT posting the whole week's puzzles at once simply because...AHEM....I know some of you will try them ALL on Monday if I do.)
Each week the puzzles will vanish and a new batch will appear. (Actually, a new one will appear each day once the old ones are gone.)
MY RULES:
1. Try a riddle/problem/puzzle ON YOUR OWN.
2. If you think you have a correct answer, WRITE IT DOWN to show me. DON'T SAY IT OUT LOUD. If you say it out loud, that puzzle will be out of play (for you and everyone else to try and collect points). PLEASE DON'T BE A BLURTER.
3. Please be honorable. You can probably find solutions to these puppies online, but, really, where is the fun in that? Abuse of the system may result in removable of puzzles and this page.
3. You have to collect your points on Fridays. Points not collected on Fri won't be signed for the following week.
The Week of Sept 2
First Installment:
Riddle #1: If I have it, I don't share it. If I share it, I don't have it. What am I?
Riddle #2: How do you make the number one disappear?
Second Installment:
Riddle #3: Throw me off a tall building, and I do not break. Put me in the ocean, and I will. What am I?
Riddle #4: What can you catch but you cannot throw?
The Weeks of Sept 20 and Sept 23
First Installment
Riddle #1: As I went across a bridge, I met a man with a load of wood which was neither straight nor crooked. What kind of wood was it?
Riddle #2: What connects two people but touches only one?
Riddle #3: There are four brothers in the world that were all born together. The first runs and never wearies. The second eats and is never full. The third drinks and is always thirsty. The fourth sings a song that is never good. What/who are they?
Second Installment
Riddle #4: The more you take, the more you leave behind. What are they?
Riddle #5: Who are two brothers who live on the opposite side of the road yet never see each other?
Riddle #6: What goes into the water black and comes out red?
Third Installment
Riddle #7: If there are 4 apples and you take away 3, how many apples do you have?
Riddle #8: What has a thumb and four fingers but is not alive?
Riddle #9: A magician is standing on a concrete floor holding a raw egg with his hand outstretched. Without the aid of any objects, he is able to drop the egg two feet without breaking its shell. How does he do it?
Fourth Installment
Riddle #10: A baseball team had won a game 19-17. No errors. Not a single man crossed the plate. How could that be?
Riddle #11: A boy was locked in a room by some robbers. All that is in the room is a piano, a calendar, and a bed. The room is locked from the outside. What does he eat, drink, and how does he get out?
Fifth Installment
Riddle #12: What is it the more you take away the larger it becomes?
Riddle #13: What word has 5 letters but is pronounced only as one?
Week of Sept 30
First Installment
Riddle #1: I am taken from a mine, and shut up in a wooden case, from which I am never released, and yet I am used by almost everybody. What am I?
Riddle #2: Poke your fingers in my eyes and I will open wide my jaws. Linen, cloth or paper, my greedy lust devours them all. What am I?
Riddle #3: It's been around for millions of years, but it's no more than a month old. What is it?
Riddle #4: What goes in the water red and comes out black?
Second Installment
Riddle #5: What do these three have in common: dogs, diamonds, and double plays?
Riddle #6: A king tells his two sons to race their horses to a distant city to see who will inherit the kingdom. The one whose horse is slower will win. Reluctantly, the brothers start out on this "race". After wandering for days, they came across a wise man and asked him for advice. After hearing the advice of the wise man, the brothers jumped on the horses and raced as fast as they can to the city. What advice did the wise man offer?
Riddle #7: The case of the poisoned pill
There are eight pills. They are all the same size and color. One pill weighs slightly more than the others and is poison. You have a balanced scale and can only use it twice. How can you find the poisoned pill?
Third Installment
Riddle #8: What is as round as a dishpan, deep as a tub, and still the ocean couldn't fill it up?
Riddle #9: What is put on a table, cut, but never eaten?
Riddle #10: A woman walks into a diner and asks the man behind the counter for a glass of water. The man pulls out a big hairy spider and tosses it toward the lady. A few minutes later, the woman thanks the man and walks out of the diner. Why?
Riddle #11: How many common four letter words can you make from the letters E A M N using all the letters in each word? What are they?
Riddle #12: What two words, when combined, hold the most letters?
Fourth Installment
Riddle #13: It has my name, but is not me! Who is speaking and what is IT?
Riddle #14: What starts with an "e" and ends with an "e" and usually contains only one letter?
Riddle #15: While driving home after a hard day's work, I came upon the following problem. An entire town had been painted black: the roads, pavements, buildings, hedges, and everything else that did not move had been painted black. In addition, my vehicle's headlights were not working, no moon was visible, and power was off in the area, so there were no street or house lights around. At that moment, I entered a curve where a solid black dog (deaf, and thus unaware of the approaching car) was sitting in the road. He had his back to me, so there was not even a glint in his eye, yet I was able to swerve around him quite easily and without danger. How was this achieved?
Riddle #16: When do you go on red and stop on green?
Week of October 14
Installment 1
Riddle #1:Good at math? Try this one....
2=3
3=5
4=4
5=4
6=3
7=5
What does 11=? What does 12=?
Riddle #2: During a school lunch break, ten kids are discussing after school jobs. In particular, they would like to know their average monthly salary (for the ten of them), but no one wants to admit opening exactly what they make. Can you devise a way for them to calculate their average salary without anyone having to tell anyone else their salary?
Riddle #3: In a random drawing of three digits, the number 361 was drawn; immediately afterward in a random drawing of four digits 2401 was drawn. Both of these numbers have something unusual in common--what is it? And what are the chances of this happening again, remembering that in a random drawing numbers can begin with one or more zeroes?
Puzzle #1:
Diophantus' youth lasted 1/6 of his life. He had his first beard in the next 1/12 of his life. At the end of the following 1/7 of his life Diophantus got married. Five years from then his son was born. His son lived exactly 1/2 of Diophantus' life. Diophantus died 4 years after the death of his son. How long did Diophantus life?
Puzzle #2: How do you write 23 using only the number 2?
Bonuses: Write 34 using only the number 3.
Write 56 using only the number 5.
Write 100 using only the number 9.
Puzzle #3:
10 candles stand burning in a dining room. A strong breeze blows through an open window and extinguishes 3 of them. Assuming the wind doesn't extinguish any more candles, how many candles do you have in the end?
Puzzle #4:
A swimming pool has four faucets. The first can fill the entire pool with water in two days, the second, in three days, the third in four days, and the last one can fill the pool in 6 hours. How long will it take to fill the pool using all 4 faucets together?
Puzzle #5:
A group of 100 soldiers suffered the following injuries in a battle: 70 soldiers lost an eye, 75 lost an ear, 85 lost a leg, and 80 lost an arm. What is the minimum number of soldiers who must have lost all 4?
Puzzle #6:
A distant planet "X" has only one airport located at the planet's North Pole. There are only 3 airplanes and lots of fuel at the airport. Each airplane has just enough fuel capacity to get to the South Pole. The airplanes can transfer their fuel to one another.
Your mission is to fly around the globe above the South Pole with at least one airplane, and, in the end, all the airplanes must return to the airport. How do you do it?
Puzzle #7:
I have two US coins totaling 55 cents. One is not a nickel.
What are the coins?
Puzzle #8:
Can you arrange 9 numerals - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 - (using each numeral just once) above and below a division line, to create a fraction equaling to 1/3 (one third)?
Puzzle #9:
There is a man in room, and he is hanging by a rope. There is a small puddle of water. How did he die?
Riddle #10:
Johnny's mom had 5 kids: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Who was the 5th child?
Mindbender #1:
While on safari in the wild jungles, Professor Quantum woke one morning and felt something in the pocket of his shorts. It had a head and a tail, but no legs. When Quantum got up he could feel it move inside his pocket. Quantum, however, showed little concern and went about his morning rituals. Why such a casual attitude?
Mindbender #2:
If two hours ago, it was as long after one o'clock in the afternoon as it was before one o'clock in the morning, what time would it be now?
Mindbender #3:
In our calendar some months have 30 days and some months have 31 days. How many months have 28 days?
Mindbender #4:
These are the conditions of Baldyville:
1. No two inhabitants have the same number of hairs on their head.
2. No inhabitant has exactly 518 hairs.
3. There are more inhabitants in town than hairs on any individual inhabitant's head.
What is the highest possible number of inhabitants?
Mindbender #5:
The day before yesterday I was 25 and the next year I will be 28. This is true only one day in the year. What day is my birthday?
Mindbender #6:
What five digit number has the following property...If we put numeral 1 in front of the number, we get a number 3 times smaller, than if we put the numeral 1 behind this number.
Mindbender #7:
Name an English word of more than 2 letters that both begins and ends with the letters "he" (in that order)...and hehe is not an acceptable solution.
Mindbender #8:
It cannot be seen, cannot be felt,
cannot be heard, cannot be smelt.
It lies behind stars and under hills
and empty holes it fills.
What is it?
Mindbender #9:
I live above a star, and yet I never burn,
I have eleven neighbors, and yet none of them turn,
I am visited in sequence, first, last or in between,
PRS (& sometimes Q) are my initials, now tell me what I am.
Mindbender #10:
If 3 peacocks lay 5 eggs in 8 days, how many peacocks will lay 29 eggs in 76 days?
Riddle #11:
How many seconds are in a year?
WEEK OF NOV 18
puzzle A:
You walk across a bridge and you see a boat full of people yet there isn't a single person on board. How is that possible?
puzzle B:
How can you take 9 toothpicks and make ten without breaking the toothpicks?
puzzle C:
There is a man on an island prison, he cannot swim. One day he escapes using nothing but himself. There is not bridge. How does he do it?
Feb. 2014
1. find the values of a, b, c, d such that abcd x 4 = dcba (6 pts)
2. Why are some letters above and some below?
above= A E F H I K L M N T V W X Y Z
below= B C D G J O P Q R S U
3. If you have 5 people in a room and each person shakes hands with every other person exactly once, how many total handshakes happen?
(bonus pt if you calculate the same problem for 8 people)
4. Rule: Every minute, each amoeba splits into two amoebas. At 5pm, you put one amoeba in a box.
At 6 pm, the box is full of amoebas. When was the box half full?
5. There are three light switches up in the attic of an old house. They control three light bulbs down in the basement. The problem is that you don't know which bulb. You can make one trip down to the basement to figure this out. How are you going to do it?
6. Two disks add to twenty. They are marked 11 and 9. Can you put numbers on the reverse side so that they add to 19, 20, 21, 22? (3 pts)
7. A customer had $100 in his account. He made 6 withdrawals, totallying $100.
withdrawal balance left
$50 $50
$25 $25
$10 $15
$8 $7
$5 $2
$2 $0
$100 $99
Why don't the totals match?